Ferrari must understand new tyres - Domenicali

Ferrari has made understanding the new Pirelli tyres its priority as it believes the new structures introduced at the Hungarian Grand Prix benefitted its rivals such as Mercedes.

After blowouts at the British Grand Prix, Pirelli reintroduced its 2012 tyre construction at the Hungarian Grand Prix on safety grounds and will continue to race with it until the end of the year. The change appeared to help Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton took his first victory of the season while Ferrari's race pace, which was its main strength earlier in the season, appears to have dropped off as Alonso struggled to fifth place.

"For sure we have lost the gap that we had [over our competitors] during the races in the first few races [of the season]," Domenicali said. "Race pace was very strong but in these conditions here we have seen that we are not where we want to be on both softs and mediums. We must understand, if this is the case, how to react from here because these are the tyres, in terms of structure, we will have until the end of the season.

"Of course a lot depends on the compounds chosen for the races towards the end of the season. It is something we need to analyse carefully and it seems that Mercedes has solved the issues they were suffering with massively during the race in these conditions, that's for sure."

Domenicali said Ferrari already had upgrades ready for the next race in Spa-Francorchamps that are aimed at improving the F138's race pace.

"We have already done a programme to be ready for Spa," he added. "There is no reason to give a negative impression because this does not help the people to work. I expect a reaction from my technical group and this is what I expect to see."